topic Re: XML Simple transform for special characters in Application Development and Automation Discussions

XML Simple transform for special characters

Former Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 13:43:24 GMT

Greetings XML experts,

I am having an issue doing a simple transform (STRANS) in ABAP. I am having issues when some of the content of my elements contain special characters. ex:

<remarks>The sum of 8 is > 6, while 5 < 3</remarks>

The special characters <, &, > are not being recognized and causing an exception. Is there some XML command that allows the special characters? Something that I could add to my command ex:

<tt:cond>

</tt:cond>

<tt:cond>

</tt:cond>

Thanks!

Re: XML Simple transform for special characters

Former Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 13:59:39 GMT

Hi Bill,

Since XML cannot handle special characters, you should use the escape characters.

So, element "&" should be replaced with "&amp". "<" (Less than) should be converted to "&#60" and ">" (Greater than) to "&#62".

Regards,

Felipe

Re: XML Simple transform for special characters

Former Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 14:05:28 GMT

Felipe,

Thanks for the response. I changed my string to look for '&' and replace with '&amp', but this still fails during the simple transform. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Re: XML Simple transform for special characters

RaymondGiuseppi — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 14:12:49 GMT

Replace every special characters with some xml/html entities:

Sample for some basic html entities, but google for list, depend also on languages in use...


REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '&'  IN text WITH  '&amp;'  IGNORING CASE.
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '"'  IN text WITH  '&quot;' IGNORING CASE.
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<'  IN text WITH  '&lt;'   IGNORING CASE.
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '>'  IN text WITH  '&gt,'   IGNORING CASE.
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '©'  IN text WITH  '&copy;' IGNORING CASE.

Regards,

Raymond

Re: XML Simple transform for special characters

Sandra_Rossi — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 14:28:04 GMT

You must replace with '&' (with a semicolon at the end; ignore the quotes) ; the worst character for the parser is '<' ; see Raymond answer.

Re: XML Simple transform for special characters

RaymondGiuseppi — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 14:37:29 GMT

Yes, with xml start replacing '&', '<' and '>' then perform some tests as some other entities could be required?

Re: XML Simple transform for special characters

Former Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 15:01:31 GMT

Sandra,

I was able to use the & with success. I was missing the ' ; ' . thanks for the help with that. The < > is going to be a real pain I am guessing.